Any Given Sunday

Any given Sunday our house could look like this...

Project central.

Spray paint is usually my weapon of choice...it can cure anything.  I learned this trick from my mama ;)  She spray paints everything.  This past weekend, however, I decided to put away my spray can and tackle something a little more....um...challenging...restoring an antique dresser!

The banged up dresser.

This summer I bought a beat up ol' dresser from an antique store in NC for 70 bucks.  Y'all, it looked awful.  It was beyond banged up and had more dimples in it than a golf ball.  Even though it needed some serious TLC, I decided to buy it anyway because of its oh-so-beautiful french drawers.  They were curved and had the most unique hardware I'd ever seen.  Needless to say, another project was quickly born and I was going to do my best to restore the dresser to its original condition.  If the restoration failed, I knew I could always paint it :)

Here's the step by step process...

Sanding with my mouse sander!  It worked like a charm!

Sanded top.

I love this little hook on the top...it adds so much character ;)

Sanded drawers.

Red mahogany stain.  Should have used gloves.

Stained dresser.

Stained dresser with semi-gloss polyurethane.

I filled in all the bumps and dings with wood filler prior to staining.
You can see the difference if you compare this picture to
the first picture of the dresser up top.

And I still love the hook!

And its curvy drawers!

We put the dresser in the front hallway and added decorations ;)

The project took 1 full day to finish.  I love how it turned out and I'm already organizing the drawers with all my knickknacks!